Mystery Bone and other Experiments

 This week was all about science as the students began thinking like scientists as they examined some real bones!

They began by looking closely at some small bones and took their time drawing them as accurately as possible. They also thought like scientists and wrote down what they observed as well as any wonderings they had about the bones. Some even noted that the bones looked very similar to the metacarpals in the palm of our hands or the metatarsals in our feet! 

Fortunately, they figured out that it was neither of those when I told them that the bones were from my dinner the night before!

Next, some students had the chance to use a vice and saw to dissect a bone by bisecting it. Before sawing open the bones, the students predicted whether the bones would be hollow or solid. They based their predictions on an experiment that we did to test the strength of a hollow and a solid cylinder (an empty paper cup and a paper cup filled with dice). We tested the strength of each by placing heavy books and some weights on top of each until the cup eventually collapsed under the weight. Even I was surprised to see that the little hollow cup that weighed a mere 4.6g held up to 20kg before collapsing under 22kg! The 'solid' cup filled with plastic dice, which was 40 times heavier than the empty paper cup (165g: 4.6g) didn't do much better as it only held up 23.6kg, before collapsing under 25.6kg. 

The students were intrigued by the mushy brown stuff inside the bones and were even more surprised to see that it had hardened and changed colour overnight! So far, no one has figured out what it was...perhaps someone will make a connection when we discuss the circulatory system...which we started to when we had the microscopes out as they examined the bones as well as some of Mr. Brabant's blood! That's right, I bled for these students' benefit! (And no in case you were wondering, I didn't cut myself with a saw.)

The students once again did a great job observing and sketching what they saw through the microscopes and made some keen observations and asked some great questions!

On Monday, we will see what happens to the floating bone that we left in the vinegar as the schedule switches from swimming on Monday afternoon to 3 blocks of unit!

All Muscles and Bones

 This week we welcomed a new student, Tsukasa to Grade 3. During unit time, we took an in-depth look at our Skeletal and Muscular Systems. We inquired into how the two systems work together to allow us to move the way we do. We began by looking closely at our hands and fingers and drew some x-ray images of our hands by using some coloured paper, crayons and cooking oil!

We also had a lesson learning about how our muscles work by pulling on tendons that pull on our bones to make us move. We put that theory to action in an extra special PE style lesson with Mr. Waite as he helped us to identify the different muscles working as we exercised.

We also compared our human-machine to robots to understand how we really work. On Friday, the students built their own working robot-finger! Next week, they'll work with others to join 5 fingers together to make robot hands!

Happy Halloween!

Our Body Systems unit fit in perfectly with my favourite event of the year, Halloween! We began the week by inquiring into the skeletal system. Students worked on drawing skeletons either from our new friend Mr. B (as in Mr. Bones and not Mr. Brabant!) or from YouTube tutorial videos. They did a great job and these became a large part of our Halloween decorations for our door and wall.

We tried to focus on our studies throughout the day by working on a Halloween themed math mystery. Then during unit time, students reflected on their body drawings on Seesaw before hanging them up in the hallway, thus adding to the Halloween theme! In the afternoon unit time, the students enjoyed some donuts from the PTA and we still continued our unit with a Halloween theme, as we examined some organs and had the chance to look at some samples of our body's cells through microscopes, and even got to touch a model of a human brain! (Which coincidentally looked a lot like udon noodles...)

The highlight of the party, was the battle of the Ghouls vs the Boneheads as the girls took on the boys in a game of Halloween Bamboozle! The other highlight was the announcement of the scariest and coolest costumes in each grade, as well as the winners of the best-decorated classroom room door and best-dressed teacher. Our winners in Grade 3 were Kanna H. and Yoshika for the coolest and scariest costumes. In Grade 4, the winners were Hirohito for coolest and Stella for the scariest. Although we didn't win the door decorating contest despite having decorated half of the hallway, we did have the teacher with the best costume!

What We Know and What We Want to Know

 Much of our unit time this week was spent on completing the pre-assessment activity of getting the students to show what they already know about what is inside their bodies and how it works. There were several interesting questions and comments that came up as I listened in on partners' conversations. 

"Do you know what a ribcage looks like?"

"Food will バラバラand go somewhere else!"

"Blood carries messages from the brain to other parts."

On Thursday, each group had the opportunity to explain to the rest of us what they had included in their body diagrams and why. All groups demonstrated a good amount of prior knowledge about some of the organs, body systems and some of their functions.

"The brain is protected by the skull." - Simran

"The heart is like a post office, the blood vessels carry blood around the body to every organ." - Hiro

"There are 206 bones, sorry we couldn't draw them all." - Yeonjae

"The lungs will turn black if you smoke and you could get cancer." - Rintaro

"In the tummy are the 小腸 and 大腸." (small and large intestine) - Kanna

"The stomach makes the food into little pieces, and dangerous water inside makes things melt and it connects to the intestines." - Aruto

"The lungs and heart are つながっている." (connected) - Lucas

"The big and small intestines are part of the digestive system." - Yoshika

"Food goes here (胃/stomach) then to 小腸 and 大腸. Things that the body doesn't need come out." - Stella

The students also had a number of interesting misconceptions.

"The red lines show blood, and blue lines are water."

"Inside the heart there is red part and blue part, inside is airline and water line."

"Blood goes to toes, to stand up and 力がはいる (they get power)."

Over the next few weeks, we will be working on correcting some of these misconceptions and will be learning more about the different body systems. Today they were able to identify 6 of the 11 body systems either by name, such as the digestive, muscular and skeletal systems, or by their function - breathing system, heart and blood system. They will be learning the proper names to these systems as well as the names and functions of various organs and hopefully all of the answers to their Wonder Wall questions in the coming weeks.